Kami Media

How I Built a Pokémon API Game and Optimized It Using JSON I built a simple browser game where you compare two Pokémon and guess which one has higher stats. The idea is very simple. You see two Pokémon and pick the one you think has the higher value. The game uses real data from an API, in this case the PokéAPI. That makes it a good small project to understand how APIs work in a real scenario. Overview Random Pokémon Generator Fetching Data per Round Using a Local JSON File Performance Impact Conclusion At the beginning I used the most direct approach. Every time the user clicked a button, the game sent a fetch request to the API. I had already used this pattern in an earlier project, a random Pokémon generator, so it felt natural to reuse it. For that kind of tool it works fine. The problem started when I turned the idea into a game. In a higher or lower game you do not just fetch once. You fetch multiple times per round. One round needs two Pokémon. Ten rounds can...

I Turned My Old Pokémon Generator Into a Higher or Lower Game I recently made a small Pokémon Higher or Lower game, and the idea for it actually came from something I built a long time ago. A few days ago I realized that I can embed my GitHub projects directly into my Blogger site. That made me go back and look through some of my older projects, and one of them was my Pokémon random generator. That project is already a few years old, maybe two or three years, but it still works and it was a good base to build something new on top of it. I wanted to make something simple and fun, not a big project, just something quick that I could finish in a short time. The idea that came to mind was a classic Higher or Lower game. It fits really well with Pokémon because every Pokémon has stats, so you can easily compare them. So I built a small game where you get two Pokémon and you have to guess which one has the higher total stats. After each round you get a new comparison and just kee...

When you want to start burning your own CDs, you will quickly come across two types of discs: CD-R and CD-RW. So what’s the difference between those two, and which one should you pick? A quick answer would be to pick the CD-R. If you want to know why, stick around. The main difference between the two is that a CD-R can only be burned once, while a CD-RW can be rewritten multiple times. This means the CD-RW is reusable and can store data somewhat like a USB stick or SD card. And that sounds like the CD-RW is better, right? It’s actually not that simple. CD-R, or Compact Disc Recordable, uses a special dye between its layers. When you burn the CD, the laser in the burner creates small marks or structures in this dye layer. This change is physical and permanent. These structures can then be read as data by devices like your CD player. Once burned, it cannot be undone, which makes CD-R a one-time use disc. This process closely mimics how original CDs were manufactured, which is why CD-R is...

Lately I’ve been getting more into Y2K stuff again. Mostly the aesthetic, some fashion, but also just the general vibe from that time. One thing that keeps showing up everywhere is CDs. Old players, stacks of discs, people showing their collections. And it made me think about how I used to make my own CDs back then. Just putting together songs I liked and burning them onto a disc. I hadn’t thought about that in years. So I started wondering why nobody really does that anymore. And also why not just do it again? What happened to CDs? When you look at the numbers, CDs basically disappeared over time. Since the early 2000s, sales have dropped by something like 90 to 95 percent. But at the same time, that decline has slowed down recently. In some cases, sales have even gone up a bit again. It’s not a huge comeback or anything. But it’s also not completely dead. Why CDs still make sense Streaming is still the easiest way to listen to music. You open an app and everything is there. Bu...

If your UI elements in Unity start looking stretched when you resize them, you probably ran into one of the most common beginner problems. You make a button or a panel, scale it up, and suddenly the corners look wrong and everything feels distorted. This happens because Unity stretches sprites by default. It treats them like normal images, so when you change the size, every part of the sprite gets scaled equally. That works fine for photos, but not for UI. Here’s what that looks like: The fix for this is something called 9-slice. If you prefer seeing it first, here’s a quick video that shows the problem and the fix: 9-slice is a way to tell Unity which parts of your sprite should stay the same and which parts are allowed to stretch. The corners stay untouched, the edges stretch only in one direction, and the center fills the rest. That’s why buttons and panels can scale without breaking visually. To fix your UI, go to your sprite in the Project window and select it. In the Inspecto...

At some point while I was learning Unity, I started building a small prototype just to try things out. Nothing serious at first, just experimenting with movement and simple mechanics. At some point I had something playable. I even showed it to a few people on my phone, and they actually liked it. That was probably the moment where I decided that this could be more than just a test project. I thought, why not turn this into a full game and release it. That game became Frogo Jump. What the game is Frogo Jump is a precision platformer where you play as a frog that fell into a well and has to climb out of it. The controls are very simple. You only click left or right and hold. Depending on how long you hold, the frog jumps further. That’s all you can do. There are no extra abilities or complex inputs. The interesting part is not the frog itself, but the world around it. Each world introduces its own mechanics. For example, the first world has slime walls. When you jump onto them, you stick...

  When I first started learning JavaScript, I didn’t really understand how websites actually get their data. I thought everything was just written into the page somewhere. Then I built a small project where I generated a random Pokémon , and that was the first time I worked with an API. So instead of explaining this in a complicated way, I’ll just use that project as an example. What is an API? An API is basically a place where you can ask for data. Instead of storing everything yourself, you can send a request to another server and it gives you the data back. In my case, I used the Pokémon API. It has data for all Pokémon, like their names, images, stats and more. I didn’t create any of that data myself. I just asked for it. What happens when you click the button In my project, there is just a button. When you click it, a few things happen in the background. First, a random number is generated. This number represents a Pokémon. Then a URL is created that ...

  I built a random Pokémon generator while learning JavaScript Open Tool Page View Source Code A while ago, when I started learning JavaScript, I made a small project just to understand how things actually work. Nothing serious, just trying things out and seeing what happens. Recently I saw a TikTok where someone was building a random Pokémon team using Google’s number generator. And I thought, wait, I already made something like that. So I went back and found this old project again. It’s basically just a small website where you press a button and it gives you a random Pokémon. It picks a random number, sends a request to an API, and then shows the name and the image. That’s all it does, but at the time it felt like a big step. The main reason I built it was because I wanted to understand how websites actually get data. Before that, everything I did was kind of static. This was one of the first times where I worked with real data coming from somew...

Burning a CD is something we used to take for granted. Almost every laptop or computer came with a CD drive built in, and it was normal to create your own music or data discs. But things have changed. Since the early 2000s, CD sales have dropped heavily, and most modern laptops no longer include a CD burner. That does not mean it is gone completely. There are still simple options available, like using a USB CD burner. I made a small list of good ones and also included a few tips on what to look out for when choosing a CD burner. Best Budget Option If you just want something simple that works, a basic USB 3.0 external CD burner like the Amicool drive is more than enough. These are usually the cheapest options and still do the job well. You just plug it in, insert your CD, and start burning right away. They are lightweight and easy to carry, which makes them perfect if you only use them occasionally. The only downside is that very cheap models can sometimes be a bit slower or less...

Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Burning a CD on Windows 11 is still possible and surprisingly easy, even on modern laptops. All you need is a USB CD burner and blank CDs. In this guide, I’ll show you step by step how to create your own music or data CD in just a few minutes. Step 1- Get what you need: To get started, you’ll need an external USB CD burner and a pack of blank CDs. Most modern laptops no longer include a built-in drive, so using an external one is the easiest solution. Insert a blank CD into your burner before continuing. Here are some simple options to get started: Burner Blank CDs Step 2 - Open Windows Media Player: Windows 11 still includes Windows Media Player. Open it and go to the “Burn” tab in the top right corner. You should see your connected USB CD burner listed there, along with an area where you can drag your files. Step 3 - Drag files: Now simply ...